Why?

“Why?” was part of the first integrated campaign done for the Ministry of Education by DDB Singapore. This three-minute online and TV film tells the story of a student and his teachers challenging society’s social norms of success and failure.

Since time immemorial, we have looked to teachers for solutions, for answers, for results. We look to them to make a difference, to solve a problem, to fix an issue. But just as critical as their answers are sometimes their questions.

“What is your dream?”

“If someone has to lead, why not you?”

“Why can’t we turn failure into success?”

These questions challenge us. They inspire us to discover more, to want more and to be more. They set us on roads less travelled. Paths that perhaps even the teachers themselves have never been on. But that is exactly the point.

Teachers are not an end; teachers are a beginning.

In less than a week, the film garnered close to 400,000 views on Facebook and clocked more than 7,000 shares and likes. Even the national paper picked it up. Also, not only did the film strike a chord with teachers and teachers-to-be, it moved the student in all of us, with many students tagging their teachers to the film and thanking them